THE MINISTER'S BOOKS AND COMPANIONS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · March 3, 1885

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 9

THE MINISTER'S BOOKS AND COMPANIONS.

No man is more influenced by the books he reads and companions he chooses than the clergyman. It is not that any one desires to abridge his freedom, or dictate his personal habits, that causes Christians to express disappointment, or at least regret, when they find their pastor reveling in skeptical literature, or enjoying over-much chummy relations with men who have no love or reverence for sacred things. It is clear that no one can companion with such books or men without suffering therefrom. An illustration, running close to one Swift used for a different purpose, is well adapted here. The spider lives on insects and vermin, and spins out for himself a beautiful net to entrap the unwary, or spits out poison to make himself feared of mankind. The bee, on the other hand, goes to the sweet and beautiful things in nature for its food, and the world feeds on the honey that it leaves as its legacy. There is a wide difference in the fruit of men's labors as affected by the literary and social companionship.—Golden Rule.